Private Lands Stewardship: A Model for Landscape-Level Conservation in the West; Kelsea Holloway

 

 

Kelsea Holloway¹*, Lauren Connell², Angela Dwyer³, Adam Beh⁴

 

¹Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Greeley, Colorado, US; kelsea.holloway@co.usda.gov

²Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Fort Collins, Colorado, US; lauren.connell@birdconservancy .org

³Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Fort Collins, Colorado, US; angela.dwyer@birdconservancy .org

⁴Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Fort Collins, Colorado, US; adam.beh@birdconservancy .org

 

 

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies has conserved birds and their habitats for 30 years through an integrative model of science, education, and private lands stewardship. Private land stewardship is vital to bird conservation, as more than 70% of land in the U.S. is privately owned.  Our network of 12 Private Lands Wildlife Biologists are strategically located throughout the Intermountain West in partnership with state and federal wildlife and agricultural programs to deliver voluntary restoration, enhancement, and conservation of critical bird habitat on private lands. Collectively, our stewardship team has conserved more than 1 million acres since program implementation in 2008 through improved management, infrastructure development, and education in our local communities. We present an innovative approach to landscape-level conservation through examples of successful conservation of critical habitats on private working lands across six states in grass- and shrub-lands, forested ecosystems, and wetlands including projects accomplished by our private lands wildlife biologist on Colorado’s South Platte River. We assess project success by evaluating avian abundance and density in response to habitat improvement projects. Finally, we focus on project challenges and lessons learned to facilitate future interdisciplinary landscape conservation efforts on private lands through public-private partnerships.